A multi-author monograph of Tell el-Farkha, the site in the Eastern Nile delta of key importance for understanding the history of predynastic Egypt, studied for many years by the Kraków-Poznań archaeological expedition. Articles collected in the latest volume refer mainly to the results of recent years of research (2012-2016), presenting them against the background of earlier – already widely known discoveries, such as the oldest brewery center or deposit of gold-covered figures of representatives of the ruling class of predynastic Delta.

The role of Tell el-Farcha in the context of the Naqada cultural settlement, as well as its – apparently – unique position in trade relations with the Levant are underlined in the chapters by K.M. Ciałowicz, M. Czarnowicz and A. Mączyńska. P. Kołodziejczyk focuses on economic aspects as particularly important for understanding the development of the settlement. A series of articles (M. Chłodnicki, A. Mączyńska, J. Karmowski) is devoted to selected aspects of residential and economic architecture (e.g. granaries). The last of the mentioned authors considers, in particular, the possibility of reconstructing the simplest architecture, the one made of materials that are not preserved in the archaeological record – reed and wooden, trying to find out – among others by means of ethnographic analogies (example of Iranian Marsh Arabs is the most picturesque) – how the development of waterlogged parts of the settlement in the times of the Lower Egyptian culture, in the 4th millennium BC, could have appeared. The chapter by G. Bąk-Pryc is devoted to the whole Delta at the same time. The book also includes a report on the latest results of the research on cemetery established in place of the settlement in the 3rd millennium BC in the Tell el-Farkha’s Eastern Com, with its magnificent mastabas made of mud brick (J. Dębowska-Ludwin). The mentioned chapter provides not only computer reconstruction of the external appearance of these objects, but also shows how the variability of the equipment and details of the execution of the tombs originates from the social diversity of the local community. As one may rightly expect, the volume devoted to the Delta in the predynastic times, provides also the results of the research of the nearby settlement in Tell el-Murra (M.A. Jucha, N. Małecka-Drozd, M. Kazimierczak). The book is closed with chapters devoted to particular categories of material culture from Tell el-Farkha: pottery (M. Sobas, M. Kazimierczak, U. Doros), including the most common bread moulds and beer jars, and flint tools (J. Skłucki).

The whole, richly illustrated volume gives a glimpse of the development of a thriving center in the Eastern Nile Delta, initially settled (in the 4th millennium) by representatives of the local Lower Egyptian culture, which in time became the object of interest of the settlers from the South (Nagada culture). One of the reasons for this interest could be the strategic location of the site on the route leading towards the southern Levant, the Sinai Peninsula – places from which Egypt before pharaohs (and later) acquired copper and other goods.

Spis treści / Contents:

K. M. Ciałowicz
Introduction

K. M. Ciałowicz
Socio-political transformations in the Eastern Delta in the second half of 4th millennium BC. The view from Tell el-Farkha

J. Dębowska-Ludwin
Socio-economic changes in early Egyptian society as reflected by graves of the Tell el-Farkha cemetery

P. Kołodziejczyk
Economy as a factor of vitality and cultural changes. Birth of early Egyptian state from the perspective of economic history of Tell el-Farkha

M. Czarnowicz
Eastern Nile Delta’s landscape at the dawn of Dynastic Age

G. Bąk-Pryc
Lower Egyptian culture in the Nile Delta. Recent research and new perspectives

M. A. Jucha
Settlement development in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta at the turn of the Naqada II and Naqada III phases